LETTER: Speaking out is a right and duty

Being originally from Fall River, the city that spawned Lizzie Borden, and a place not generally known to be lacking in opinions, or the guts to espouse them, I have for years availed myself of the letters and op-ed sections of the national media to make my personal views known. “It is our right and our duty as Americans to do so!”

The Herald News, Fall River, MA

Writer

Posted Sep. 11, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Sep 11, 2013 at 11:21 AM

Posted Sep. 11, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Sep 11, 2013 at 11:21 AM

» Social News

Being originally from Fall River, the city that spawned Lizzie Borden, and a place not generally known to be lacking in opinions, or the guts to espouse them, I have for years availed myself of the letters and op-ed sections of the national media to make my personal views known. “It is our right and our duty as Americans to do so!”

When, however, a few of those (so called) progressive newspapers ask you not to write any more because your views are not always the same as theirs, or some within government have called in a favor or two while keeping themselves, their names, or their political party out of controversy, then these people are (in my opinion) cowards and not worthy of the title of free-thinking American, leave alone journalists!

For as long as the language is kept clean, the thoughts are not slanderous, and the points that are attempting to be made are timely and not seditious, it is our duty to submit an opinion piece to any publications of our choice, contrary to a few recent attempts to silence them. Either that, or any publication that accepts paid advertising, or carries political materials of any kind, had better identify themselves as morally or politically controlled, in my opinion.

And to those of you, be you in government, big business, the media, or even those that may fall under the partial control of some who would be an unchallenged authority: I say, “The Bill of Rights still applies to us all equally, or at least it does until the current crusade to weaken or eliminate portions of it convinces those in power that ‘The Mandates of Our Founding Fathers,’ like many of us who still believe in the ‘Bill of Rights’ (all 10 of them), are considered to be no longer essential or merely a bother?”

These are, of course, my own personal opinions and views, expressed by me alone, while it still remains legal to do so.